Cartilage
by mewhunter9
Summary: Strike Squad joining the team had a lot of pros, but with pros came cons. Lack of space was one of those, meaning many had to share a bed with at least one other person. Fun, right? When Bren is tucked in with curious Carlos, he finds out that there are other sources of warmth. T for certain terms and yaoi.


**AN - Wow, something actually popped from my ass. And it's yaoi, ironically, that Mardigraskit prompted me with. This story is based on mine and Mardigraskit's theory that the Strike Squad will join Core Tech, but more of a just cute scene from inside of that - for more on it, though, you'll have to attend to her account.**

**Disclaimer - Carlos and Caroline are Mardi's OCs, and Monsuno belongs to its respective company.**

* * *

Bren didn't know much about Carlos, for he hadn't known the male long. Though, there was something that he caught onto very fast. When Carlos saw something he wanted, he would find a way to get it - regardless of if it is the right thing to do. And once he had it, he either dropped it or kept it to protect. Mostly, it fell and became unimportant.

Like previously stated, Bren hadn't known Carlos long. But he had noticed a particular... interest, if you could call it that, for him. Carlos flirted with the whole group, as he rolled down an open bicurious route. Something was different when Carlos hit on Bren, and the latter was pretty uncomfortable with it.

As uncomfortable as he was now, curled against the cold wall of the train. There wasn't much other room - Carlos, who for some reason chose to sleep with him and almost assaulted Bren in an inappropriate manner when he rejected the decision, was spread across the bed that was fairly small in the first place. The blonde was nearly in the middle of the bed, his arms bent into a triangle in front of him so that he could lay his head on his hands. Bren felt awkward about touching others while sleeping, even if he didn't have much room.

His undesired position had led to him not received much sleep. He received about an hour or so of dreams before he woke once again, Carlos having had stolen the blankets off of him and cacooning them around himself sometime in that period of time. The train was freezing, especially with the cold night air seeping through the wall and directly to Bren.

The brunette's arms were wrapped around him, legs pulled up so he could be as warm as possible. He was visibly shivering - he wish he had some body fat to keep him warm. The others always talked about how he was as thin as a stick with glasses. Well, Chase was about as skinny as he was, but he was mostly muscles and blood. Bren was smart and blood - that would be a good comeback to use later.

Bren sat up, looking around the train car they were in. Did Jeredy put any spare blankets around? He couldn't see any in the darkness... He had his jacket somewhere in his bag that he could wear so he wouldn't freeze to death.

Carefully, he sat up, eyes watching Carlos to make sure he didn't disturb him. The 'Shark' was an ass, but Bren didn't want to be rude. He picked out where the other's legs were, making sure to specifically put his knees between them before a daring move to the side of the bed for him to get down. One foot managed to safely press against the first step of the ladder, and he held onto the edge as he pulled his other leg toward him.

Though, the brunette wasn't cautious enough, and didn't calculate the distance between his foot and the bed. He ended up catching Carlos' leg, rolling it over. Bren quickly drew his own limb back to rest on the ladder, beginning to descend. He was lucky - Carlos had been in a deep enough sleep and didn't notice the kick.

He reached the bottom of the ladder, catching a glimpse of Chase on his bed under Bren's own. The black - haired boy was turned on his side, the blankets covering most of his body. His hair poked out of the end, with a small gap for breathing revealing his closed eyes as well.

Looking around, his chocolate eyes saw the sleeping faces of the rest of CoreForce, the name he had coined from a mixture of Core Tech and Strike Squad. Force sounded better, in his opinion, though the others were still working at calling it that. They would pick the name up eventually, right?

Bren tore himself away from his thoughts, walking toward his bag that had been thrown carelessly at the wall earlier, unzipping it and rummaging through until he found his jacket. He pulled it out, clenching the shoulders of fabric, and started sliding his arms in. Though, just before, he heard a voice.

"What are you doing, _Brenerd_?"

The addressed boy almost jumped out of his skin, dropping his jacket and flinching, a barely audible squeak passing his lips. He heard an amused snort from behind him. He turned quickly, squinting as he tried to see up to his bed. If only he had contacts he could sleep in, as the darkness didn't help that he couldn't see worth a krag. Though, there was only one person who would call him the spinoff from 'Bernard', as in the dog.

"Trying to, _uh_, get something out of my backpack," Bren whispered, not wanting to wake anyone else up.

Carlos made some sort of tired sighing noise, "Such as? It's too late to play that stupid game of yours, and I hope the only other things in that bag is your clothes."

The smaller rolled his eyes, "I'm getting my jacket, alright? I'm cold, go back to sleep. We need to get up early tomorrow - _er_, later today."

"Cold?" The dark golden - haired male mumbled into his pillow.

"Yeah, because _someone_," Bren's voice cracked and rose with a small bit of irritation, "took all the blankets."

"Come here, and I'll give you frostbite on your neck," Carlos joked, yawning at the end.

"I think you've bitten into enough people today, I'll take my chances with my jacket," Bren sighed, picked the clothing item up.

"Put that raggy thing down and come up here, I'll share with you this time," Carlos gave in, sitting up slight and started spreading the blanket out.

The brunette, setting his jacket on top of his bag just incase he needed warmth once more, took the other's word and crossed over to the ladder. He climbed up quickly and silently, crawling on his arms and knees across Carlos' legs once he reached his destination. He fell onto the spot he had lain on earlier, though instead facing the other male this time. He felt the blankest drop on him as the mattress repositioned with Carlos lying down.

Bren closed his eyes and was about to turn over to be more comfortable, the heat starting to seep in and warm him, when he felt a very close presence. He discarded it until arms began constricting around him, pulling him slightly away from the wall. The brunette's eyes snapped open and he was met with another's neck and upper chest, cloaked in a shirt.

"_Carlos_," Bren's voice panically rose in volume, "_W - What_ are you doing?"

"Keeping you warm, and stay quiet, or you'll wake someone else up," Carlos mumbled, his voice dragging with sleep.

His arms went limp as he relaxed, but they still held Bren into place. The latter started struggling slightly with hopes of escaping.

"Calm down, I'm just freaking cuddling with you because you're cold," Carlos' head dug into the pillow, "S'not like I'm going to hurt you, too tired right now."

The smaller thought for a moment, thinking of a valid excuse to be released. Though, when he opened his mouth to say what was on his mind, a snore rumbled into his ears... Did Carlos seriously fall asleep that fast?"

Bren grumbled, wrapping his arms around his stomach. He sighed and closed his own eyes.

Well, at least he was warm, and as comfortable as he would admit.

* * *

_"Seems to me like you wanted it, Brenny Bren_."

Chase ruffled Bren's brown hair, smirking as the latter growled. They sat in the train car next to the one they slept in, mats underneath them for comfort.

"No, _I didn't_!" He rejected for the millionth time, "I was just cold, and he is far more muscular than me! I didn't even release how strong he was until I was there..."

"Ha! Proves it, you noticed that, what _else_ did you notice? I always knew the flirts that passed between you two had something underneath," Jinja smiled, looking pretty confident.

Bren made a defeated noise, "We_ didn't_ do anything! If anything, he flirts with me! He flirts with you guys too, so it's not that big of a deal!"

"Appreciate it, Bren, the only person who has and will ever take an interest to you. Kind of sucks it has to be Carlos," Jinja smirked, using her hand to move away her bangs.

"_Why_ does it suck it has to be Carlos?"

Three pairs of eyes snapped over to the door as the door closed. coincidentally, it was the female that Carlos, as an ex - Strike Squad member, had been chosen as a counterpart to and trained to fight specifically. Caroline, a hand rubbing the sleep out of her eye.

"Oh, so I guess you didn't hear," Chase spoke, pretending he didn't notice Bren mouthing 'no' repeatedly, "Sharkboy Carlos made our Bren into little spoon and they slept like that."

"He did, what?!" Caroline, despite having seemed tired at first, piped up instantly with a hand on the doorknob.

"Yep. And I say both are a little happy about it," The black - haired boy flashed a smile at the brunette that was hitting his head on the wall.

"I'll be right back, have a cast ready for Carlos' broken arm." And, with that, Caroline's long blonde hair was the last to be seen as she disappeared behind the door.

"Well, Jinja shrugged, "It's not like they don't try to break a different part of each other every day."

Bren sighed as he began typing away various things into the Core Tablet. He reached up and pretended to scratch his nose, hiding the smile that stretched underneath.

_There were a few different types of warmth, it seemed. And some you couldn't get by yourself._


End file.
